Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Topic 24: Highlights of Day 1 of the Medical and Scientific
Communications 2013 Forum

As I mentioned earlier, I am attending the DIA MSC meeting in Pheonix, AZ this week. The MSC has increased value this year because they have added a track specifically focused on MSLs. Through the hard work of the MSL Track Chair people Rebecca Vermeulen and Ramineh Zoka, as well as the hard work of all the presenters the MSL Track has had a terrific first day.

DISCLAIMER: My focus is on interesting information, I did not try to take verbatim notes and will not try to assign comments to a particular speaker. Any mistakes are mine alone.

In no particular order, some of things are found interesting included:

- A pill is poison unless the right information is wrapped around it.

- ACA

Because of the passage of the ACA and the Supreme Court upholding the law, Rx spending is expected to increase 4.7% more than is the law had not passed

With the ACA’s introduction of roughly 20 million newly insured people in 2014, the US market will become the fastest growing pharmaceutical market in the world

- Tax Deductibility for Marketing and Sales expenses in Biopharma

Some talk about eliminating this to increase tax revenue

Proposed 3 times in the last year but killed each time

NOT at all clear whether MA would be considered marketing under tax law

If passed, likely to see major cuts needed to balance budgets in these areas

- Caronia Ruling (you knew I would have to get something in here about this)

No one knows when it will be law of the land but likely 5 to 10 years

Old standard of safe – what is on the label

New standard will be – information that a reasonable consumer would not find misleading

New standard is current FTC standard for all advertisement

Data will be king, but not just data submitted to FDA

For time being, continue like no change

- History of MSL Role

First MSLs started 40 years ago

Up John created role and actually trademarked the name MSL

Part of the sales teams – scientific sales

- MSL Facts of Interest

Most MSLs manage between 25 and 49 KOLs

32% of companies surveyed (n~60+) intend to grow MSL team

Only 11% intend to shrink MSL teams

- Value of MSLs by Physicians

Surveys showed physicians do NOT value frequency, they value:

Accessibility

Responsiveness

Knowledge

Up to date information

Do NOT want to meet with MSLs if:

Only have old or out of date information

Feel they are biased

Have nothing new to tell them

- Diagnostic MSLs

Specific MSL group focused on uptake of diagnostics

Big challenge – to use a diagnostic, they need the diagnostic platform – often millions of dollars

Thus broader array of people involved in decision beyond just HCP, including:

Bench Tech

Lab Managers

Pathologists

Administration

Opens questions about right regulatory regime for non-HCPs

- CIA Driven Changes

CIAs require standards and documentation

Documentation increasingly taking the form of customer relationship management systems specifically for MA

Most common system by show of hands in the room: Veeva running on Salesforce.com

To be effective, this type of system needs to:

Track interactions

Manage content

Link the two

Key pitfalls

Privacy, especially for global systems given EU requirements

Complexity

Obviously, this is merely a few key concepts from the day but it should give you some flavor of the type of discussions and the focus of the meeting. Overall I would say the tone was very positive, given the challenges MSLs face in their highly regulated environment. Everyone at the meeting was confident that MSLs value was high and these challenges could be met. Look forward to tomorrow.